Thursday, July 22, 2010

Last week I needed to get 4 daily BGs done to get the 100 arena points to pick up Wrathful Gladiator's Kodohide Robes. Oooh shiney! Well, I haven't done too many battlegrounds on K lately. Sure I'll very occasionally do the daily BG and I do try to get in Wintergrasp a couple times a week, but its been a very long time since I've had to grind a bunch of BGs on her to pick something up.

I guess because it had been a while, I kind of forgot how painful it can be as alliance on Emberstorm. I think what I experienced was 35% total ass whooping by Horde, 20% total ass whopping by Alliance, 10% actual close hard fought match won by Alliance, 10% actual close hard fought match won by Horde, 25% not total but close to total ass whopping by Horde. If you do the maths that's 70% Horde victories, 30% Alliance.

I had one particularly bad string where we got annihilated in Strands of the Ancient. Then my very next random BG was Eye of the Storm, where while the Alliance only had 1 tower, 80% of my "team" was in the middle battling it out for the flag. Um hello, learn how the battleground is scored and won FFS. FFS!!! It caused a scary outburst in guild chat that went something like:

"G'DAMN MOTHERFUCKING SHIT ALLIANCE!!!!! AAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!"

Some guildies got a little concerned. Others got a little scared. I think after another set of painful BGs, I told Shat that I had to log off to go do some pilates to center myself and find my inner peace. Honestly though, sometimes this is my reaction to BGs:

I think the only thing that keeps me half sane while doing BGs is seeing how many Horde it takes to successfully take me down. Resilient tree is resilient. :)

Anyways, so related to my little expletive laced outbursts, you know how there has been a lot of talk in the news about the danger of violent video games? Well, an interesting opposite take on this came out last week.

A Texas A&M study found that violent games may actually reduce hostility, rather than increase it.

"In this study, 103 young adults were given a frustration task and then randomized to play no game, a non-violent game, a violent game with good versus evil theme, or a violent game in which they played ‘the bad guy.’ The results suggest that violent games reduce depression and hostile feelings in players through mood management". "It does seem that playing violent games may help reduce stress and make people less depressed and hostile."

Hmmmm interesting. Though honestly, any of my guildies who have come across me right after a spell of bad BGs know that I am definitely not less stressed. Though who knows, maybe it is an outlet for stress from RL.

The last time I willingly (if you could call it that...) did a by was for children's week in '09. I did it with a few friends and we vented it up. I turned into a monster. I don't pvp because I get so infuriated! I start inventing my own curse words and phrases, which is amusing to bystanders, but it's so unlike me to act like that. I don't like how angry I get when I pvp so I understand how you feel ><

Most of the violent games those studies use are FPSs where you get to annihilate npcs. It's easy, it's fun, there's lots of splatter and you're in control. In PVP, however, there's lots of frustration if you're in an unorganized group and you're losing. No, I suspect PVPing for the losing side does NOT reduce hostility. :)